I met my wife ( Maria Flevotomou ) just after my very first marathon race in 2004. She is a hobbyist runner too. Since then we are together, sometimes we are running together, we got married a few years ago and now we have two daughters, the first one is 8 years old and the second one is just 10months old.
In 2006 i ran my first 6hours race, supported by Maria, both we had no experience about what is happening to the body after the marathon distance… We learned about it by the hard way, i mean by pain of my mistakes during running…
In 2007 i ran my first 100km race, my first 24h race and that was the begging of some other ultramarathon races at the following years, all of them supported by Maria. Our experience becοming richer and richer almost in every issue that had do on on the race day. Hydration, tactic, clothing, legs massage, etc. The most important to me is the mental inspiration…
In 2010 i run at Spartathlon for my first time. I was too scary for this race but i was feeling strong enough as my wife was supporting me ..and for our first time, having together in all the race our (11months old then) daughter. Ιt was the race of my life. Spartathlon is still the race of my life. That year my motivation was not only my ambition or to explore my limits or the curiosity for this amazing race, but i wanted very much to finish the race to make Maria proud of me, and have great story to tell to my daughter when she will be growned up. The physical presence of my baby daughter worked as a booster to me, making me deny to quit in frond of her eyes. I wanted to be the strongest man she will meet in her life. I still want. That applies for my second daughter too. I don΄t want them to see me quiting on something important to me. Spartathlon now is not just a race, is something important to me.
So this was the first time my family was supporting me on Spartathlon. My Team.
Since then, Maria΄s supporting experience is in a profecional level to me. She knows what i need in the race before i ask for it, she also can predict what will need later and taking care of it. She can see me approaching by far away, and recognice my problems by my body posture, or knowing if i feel pain somewhere, or if i need something by checking just the color of my skin..She knows exactly how to touch me or massage me to relief me of my leg or body pains, e.t.c. During the Spartahlon on the main checkpoints she does not let anyone talk to me more than a few minutes, in order to stay focused on the race and to what she is saying. She is checking me by questions, if i eat, drink, if i pee, or asking if i remember phone numbers to check my brain sittuation and she is taking care of them. Very often she is checking my pace and she advice me on things i am not able to think alone during the race. For example on Spartathlon 2012 i was too sleepy at night. She asked me not to run alone at the dark, and she said to me to prefer to be near to Greek runners if i feel sleepy so i will not encumber my brain if i talk by translating from English to Greek. Such a little but so important detail.
There is something more. Maria knows everything about me. She knows my normal life, we are making together my running budget that has to do also to my family budget. She knows my problems at work, our common problems in family, my worries, she knows how my training iw going, she knows that sometimes i have to stay for hours away from home in my day-off in order to do my training run and not to play with kids, she knows what is cheering me up, what motivates me, she knows exactly which button to press anytime to me to give me strenght and wll to continue again….
Ιn other Ultra races in Greece and on Spartathlon as well, our image as a couple is very recognizable , me as a runner and she as my support. But she is not by herself.
My family includes my daughters and as i said above, their physical presence on my races gives me mental strengh to continue. My first daughter is growened up on Spartathlon. The first time she was a baby. At her 8 years, she knows runners from many countries, she knows the difficulty and the route of the race, the villages that runners going through them, she also knows the story of Spartathlon, the story of Pheidippides and my motivation points. She is helping her mother to prepare my isotonic drinks or to prepare my food. She also likes the night part of the Spartathlon as she likes to wear her own headlight. She likes this as a family adventure activity. This year she was keeping notes by herself about the time i was arriving at the main Check Points. In my last finishes she lives that emotional load that everybody feels there. As i said, there is something more for me. I want for her to be the strongest man she will meet in her life….not seeing me quiting. I want this for my baby daughter too and these thoughts motivates me as i am running. And i feel strong enought to continue..even if i feel that im gonna run through hell.
I want for them to have live memories, not just photos from Spartathlon race, to remember and to know how strong we are as a family, how we support each other, how important is every member of us to the other.. so i need to run some years more in this amazing and very difficult race that became part of myself, in order to succed it for my second daughter too and that is a motivating point to me as well.
But the truth is that without Maria and my family….finishing Spartathlon for me maybe would be just an antouchable dream.
